Land Business Startup 101: List of Things to Do (LA 1329)
Land Business Startup 101: List of Things to Do (LA 1329)
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hello.
Steven Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill Dewitt, broadcasting from sunny, Southern California.
Steven Butala:
Today Jill and I talk about The Land Business Startup 101, a list of things to do. These topics all this week, they’re 101, 201, 301, 401, by huge requests. Jill and I, last week, had a closed webinar for all of our members, tons of people showed up. Thank you by the way. And we asked everybody what they want and they said, “We want lists. We want to know how the rest of my career is going to go in this thing according to you guys.”
Jill DeWit:
One of many topics, right? There was a lot that we talked about, I’m really happy about. But this week is going to be fun because we structured it like you’re a freshman, you’re a sophomore, you’re a junior, you’re a senior, that’s the hundred, 200, 300, 400 level classes. And then we have Fridays like your masters level. We have a 500 series class.
Steven Butala:
Exactly.
Jill DeWit:
So. And then next week… I can’t even, what is next week? It’s probably going to be like philanthropist talk?
Steven Butala:
Yeah. Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
What’s going to be after that?
Steven Butala:
That’s what Land Academy is, philanthropy.
Jill DeWit:
There we go.
Steven Butala:
No. That’s a great philosophical question. I’m sure we’ll talk about it, some version of it this week. Yet at some point, you get … If you’ve ever taken a master’s degree … I’ve only taken the first couple classes of a master’s degree and it’s like, “I learned all this stuff in undergrad. So, what’s the deal like?”
Jill DeWit:
That’s the same as college though, isn’t it?
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
I feel like your freshman and sophomore, we’re prepping our number three kid right now with this whole thing. I’m like, “Get college credit at the same time silly because if it counts for high school and it counts for college, you’d be nuts not to.”
Steven Butala:
He just finished his first college class.
Jill DeWit:
Because I know your first two years of college, we all know, it feels like I’m in high school still. Like I just did this.
Steven Butala:
I mean, he just finished his first summer college class online and his exact comments were, “This is it? This is easier than high school. I don’t really even have to show up. All I have to do is, they gave us all the curriculum, I can work ahead. I got the whole thing done in two weeks and it was a two month class.” So, yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. That’s right.
Steven Butala:
So, I think that. I really think that in the end a master’s degree, and then eventually a PhD is all about the professors that you have. All I remember about as college is not the content at all. Not a single bit.
Jill DeWit:
That’s interesting.
Steven Butala:
I just remember about the maybe five or six instructors that were great and some incidents.
Jill DeWit:
What was it about them? Is it because they wanted to be there? Is it because they shared real world experience?
Steven Butala:
I’ll answer you. Here’s a couple of-
Jill DeWit:
I’m really curious now.
Steven Butala:
Here’s a couple of examples of things that instructors that really left a lifelong impression on me. I had a finance instructor and the first day of class on a blackboard … This is Michigan State now so it’s an auditorium of five million people. It’s not Harvard where I would envision six or seven people sitting around in big leather chairs, or something like that. It was an auditorium full of people. And we walked in on the first day and on the board he had written, cash kills companies. Did we ever talk about this?
Jill DeWit:
Nope.
Steven Butala:
I’m sure I brought it up on the show maybe four years ago.
Jill DeWit:
Oh. Oh, yeah. Wait. I do remember. What do you think? Come on.
Steven Butala:
I don’t know. I can’t remember either. And so, I’m like, “What are you talking about? Cash kills companies?” So, then, I go out in life and fast forward decades later, I’m like, yeah, cash kills-
Jill DeWit:
It’s true.
Steven Butala:
Absolutely kills companies. Companies run out of cash, perfectly great companies that can end up being Microsoft are underfunded.
Jill DeWit:
You know what I thought you were going to say? Too much cash can kill a company too.
Steven Butala:
That’s true too.
Jill DeWit:
I was going say because you throw things, money at the wrong things.
You’re not paying attention to the right things.
Steven Butala:
I’m writing a blog about that exact … we’re so far off topic already. I’m writing a blog about that exact topic. There are certain thresholds, like how did Jeff Bezos ever gets to be, what pathological insanity is going on? And I don’t mean to pick on him. Anybody who’s a multi billionaire, why don’t you just stop at like 200 million bucks?
Jill DeWit:
That’s true.
Steven Butala:
Because I would have.
Jill DeWit:
Would ya?
Steven Butala:
Yeah, absolutely.
Jill DeWit:
I’m just kidding.
Steven Butala:
I’m not motivated. I’m just motivated by freedom.
Jill DeWit:
Got it.
Steven Butala:
I’m not motivated by like, pound my chest to be the richest guy around.
Jill DeWit:
That’s very healthy. I’m proud of you.
Steven Butala:
Anyway. There’s all kinds of college stuff that, yeah this week is a college theme.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Got it.
Steven Butala:
Before we get into the topic though, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community, it’s free. And I say this in advance Jill, this comment slash question it’s longer but it’s worth it.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Cool.
Lucas wrote, I want to share with everyone some thoughts on my current state with my land business, mostly just to get stuff off my chest. I haven’t posted in a while because it’s been a whirlwind of activity. First, the Land Academy support emails have been perfectly timed. I just got the week five email, seller’s calling back? Which covers handling inbound calls and hate. I have been amazed at the timing of these emails. They come into my inbox almost to the day that it’s relevant for me. This has been a huge boost because it tells me that I’m right on track with where I should be. Moving along quickly, but not too quickly. My first week of inbound calls has resulted in numerous emails, and roughly two dozen calls. About half of those have been hate, which is awful to deal with. That’s okay.
Between the email and phone, probably 12 sellers interested in accepting offers. That’s perfect. I’m finding that my offers made sense from a comp to comp standpoint, but I didn’t really factor in the rate of sales in that area. So I may not be able to sell as quickly as hoped. Also, learning a lot about the variance that can be seen between zip codes within a given County. In future mailers that will definitely be a big part of my pricing process. Super overwhelmed with all the calls coming in over the last week.
Steven Butala:
You did everything right.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, it’s awesome. Perfect.
Steven Butala:
You’re supposed to be overwhelmed.
Jill DeWit:
Yep. That’s what you want, overwhelmed with people. You don’t want crickets. You want activity, you want deals. I simply can’t process them fast enough. I love this problem. Struggling to make good contact with title companies, attorneys, and counties. It’s tough because I work full time so I can’t spend much time on the phone. Luckily, my wife has taken an interest and is willing to spend some time on the phone for me. Need to establish a few good relationships here.
Steven Butala:
I’m going to stop you right there for a second.
Jill DeWit:
Hopefully one of them means with his wife.
Steven Butala:
I’m going to stop you right here for a second. That’s exactly what happened to Jill and I. So when Jill and I met, she was exposed to this whole thing.
Jill DeWit:
Exposed. Like radiation.
Steven Butala:
Exposed to the insanity of buying and selling land, and then ultimately the profitability. And so she took an interest in it too and here we are.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Steven Butala:
So there’s no way you can sit down … Look, everybody finds Land Academy, we don’t go find these people. They find us on the internet. If you have ever sat down and explained buying and selling land to somebody who it’s never been a thought in their head before this, before that moment, you know how crazy that is.
Jill DeWit:
It’s hard.
Steven Butala:
They just don’t, and rightfully so, they don’t get it. They don’t care.
Jill DeWit:
Yep.
Steven Butala:
So people, and I think this person’s wife here is one of them, needs to see it. They need to see the activity. They need to see the purchase agreements coming back and looking this stuff up on the internet.
Jill DeWit:
And the phone ringing.
Steven Butala:
And saying, “Wait a minute, you’re going to buy a $48,000 property for 12 grand?” It’s really easy to get interested after that point. So if you’re listening to this, this a compliment. So people who are finding us and take an interest in it and seeing it, like mentally seeing it, before it smacks them in the face like a television show.
Jill DeWit:
All right, that’s so good. Back to the question.
Having to go back and lower some offers with sellers who already accepted my first offer, which isn’t fun but necessary.
This is talking about the relationships that we have to do here.
Very lucky to have an advanced member take some time to share pro tips and some guidance with me. Landinvestors.com is a lifesaver. I’m excited and looking forward to making an acquisition. I can’t wait to share the feeling that I’m going to mess up somehow. Can’t shake, excuse me. Can’t shake the feeling that I’m going to mess up somehow.
That happens. I hope you can’t wait to do it too.
Trying to keep focus on the goal, determined to push through this part of the process. Mailers and data were easy for me.
Steven Butala:
Good.
Jill DeWit:
Dealing with the people is where I get stressed, need a team. Thank you to this community.
So cool.
Steven Butala:
So I thought this was really appropriate for the 101 episode. This is a real life detailed account of this person, it sounds like week five, and what to experience. And I’m glad the mailers and data part were easy because that’s the part that’s easy for me.
Jill DeWit:
Sorry.
Steven Butala:
And at some point you’re going to need a partner. You’re going to want to find a partner because you don’t want to do the stuff that you don’t want to do.
Jill DeWit:
Or your wife, you never know.
Steven Butala:
Right.
Jill DeWit:
She might have love it. I took to it.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. That’s what I’m saying, so partner.
Jill DeWit:
Okay, good. I wasn’t sure. I’m like, I thought he had one
Steven Butala:
Today’s topic, Land Business Startup 101. Here’s a list of things to do when you start off in the land business. I’m going to read off. Do you have the list?
Jill DeWit:
I have a mental list.
Steven Butala:
I’m going to read off the exact list in the equity planner. Equity planner is a detailed spreadsheet that’s included in House Academy and Land Academy 2.0, I think. Yeah. 2.0. Where it keeps you organized. It puts you on a schedule, it’s got a calendar of stuff that you’re supposed to do, or you should be doing, and gauging your timeframes on that. And then there’s a very detailed 15 to 18 unit list, depending on how you look at it. A very simple little baby steps to get you where you need to be to get that first deal done. So let me preface this. This is more information here than horsing around today.
Really this whole week. Your goal for 101 in the first stages of this is to get a deal done, get one deal done. I don’t care if you screw it all up. In fact, if you screw it up personally, I think that would be better. I think that if you could make a lot of mistakes on that first deal, hopefully not lose any money, I think that-
Jill DeWit:
Figure it all out. Get it out of the way.
Steven Butala:
That’s not to say that I think most people make a lot of money and then they’re off to the races. I did on my first deal, I doubled my money. But you that’s not the point here. My point is not to make money. My point is money is secondary. You just got to get that first deal done because at the end of that first deal, you’re going to look at yourself in the mirror and say, “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.” Or something else, you know? Or some other thing like, “My job’s not that bad.” Or whatever, I don’t know.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Steven Butala:
So number one, step number one is education. You have to get educated. I can’t express this enough. This is not a topic, nor is really any topic. There’s something about real estate investment that people think, for some reason, that education is optional.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
I think they’ve watched their parents buy a house, or maybe you bought a house and sold it for more and it was like, “I didn’t have to do any work, the real estate agent did everything. The title agent did some stuff.” That’s just not the case. This is a whole different situation. You’re a startup. You’re starting your own business, or a hobby, depending on how you look at it. So you got to get educated and I don’t care if it’s from Land Academy.
I personally think, for obvious reasons, we provide the best education on all levels. I truly believe in my soul, we are the experts in this space. All the other education out there, I’m not knocking it. In fact, whatever you choose just make sure you get educated is what I’m saying. At that point you’re going to work your way down this following list.
You need to choose a County, or zip code, depending on what type of properties that you’re you’re buying. Last week, or two weeks ago, I think we did a show called the four types of businesses, it was last week.
Jill DeWit:
I think it was.
Steven Butala:
Four types of businesses that you can start. So please go back and look at that. Some of them are very conducive to good zip code mailing, and some are conducive to County mailing. You got to test those zip codes in great detail in what I call, or what the thing that I’ve created called the red, yellow, green test.
So you take counties, line them up against each other, see which ones pass the tests, or zip codes, and then pull the data. Either, pull it on Data Street or Real Quest. Jill and I are licensed providers of both. All our programs show exactly how to do that and in great detail. Scrub the data down, take out stuff like cemeteries and hospitals, and US government owned stuff, or city owned property.
Things that, like use common sense test where they’re not, if you send an offer to the US government to buy their property, you’re wasting the price of a stamp. And get the offer in the mail. We have tools for this stuff all the way down. That’s what offers to owners is. If you don’t know about that, Jill and I own this printing company. Like all of our tools, we were doing it for ourselves for years. Then we just made it available to the public.
Then you wait, wait for two weeks. So what do you do during those two weeks before? This is after … You can jump in here anytime you want.
Jill DeWit:
No I’m really, thank you.
Steven Butala:
After you get that thing in the mail and it’s two weeks until you get that first phone call, or something back in the mail or email knowing that they’re responding to your offer campaign. While that’s happening, while you’re sitting there waiting, you don’t watch old episodes of Cheers.
Jill DeWit:
I know what I do.
Steven Butala:
What do you do?
Jill DeWit:
I get my CRM ready. I’m getting ready for all the, what’s going to be the next thing? They’re going to call, I want to make sure I’m ready for the calls. I want to make sure I have a place to track the calls. I need to be ready to start. I’m going to practice looking at properties right now, doing my due diligence, so I can make quick decisions when this all lands.
Steven Butala:
You want to make sure that you have a very simple, a WordPress website. A .com website. I would heavily suggest using .com versus anything else, because it’s really in the search engines. It’s natural to the search engines. So get your website set up. And even before the letters go out, you need to have a local phone number to where you’re sending the mail.
Jill DeWit:
A mailing address.
Steven Butala:
And they can’t be temporary. If you live in a house that you know you’re not going to live in, or an apartment a year from now, don’t use that address. You need to use an address that … Here’s why, because 20 years from now we’ve had the same address, I’ve had the same mailing address for 25 years. It’s a box, like a UPS store, a box. And because for 20 years, you’re going to get these letters back. I just got one back, somebody emailed me personally and said, “It took a lot to find you, but I really want to sell my 10 acres that you sent an offer on in 2002.”
And then as simple as it sounds, now you’ve got your phone situation set up, your address set up. You want to make sure that you have some type of workspace setup that works for you. You know, some people can put the kids to sleep and work on a kitchen table. I’m not one of those people. What’s your work?
Jill DeWit:
I can do it anywhere.
Steven Butala:
Here’s a little anecdotal break. Jill’s been spending a lot of time on her personal workspace. And I’ve never seen you, in all the years that we’ve working together, really take your own workspace and just kind of … I’ve always wondered this because you’re like, you’re an innate interior decorators slash want to be comfortable in your environment person.
Jill DeWit:
Why now? I have no idea.
Steven Butala:
Yeah, you’re spending … I can’t spend the money fast enough. She’s buying expensive furniture and chairs. She’s got a white theme going on in her office and I’m proud of you.
Jill DeWit:
Well, part of it is I’m setting up to do some of my own content and do my own videos and do some stuff that’s going to help all of us. It’s not going to be separate from what we’re doing, but I’m going to provide more on my own. The other is, truth time, we move around a lot, you know? And I’m like, okay, we’re here for a little while, now I’m going to get comfortable. That’s part of it. I don’t get too comfortable. I don’t want to go through all the effort and have to take it all down.
Steven Butala:
Okay.
Jill DeWit:
So that’s part of it.
Steven Butala:
So that’s the two weeks there. What you want to be thinking about in the back of your head, and don’t act on it yet, is forming an LLC somewhere in some state. Separating the money that you’re going to use to buy and sell property into a separate bank account, probably under the LLC name, and eventually payroll stuff. But you don’t have to think about any of that, that has nothing to do with getting your first deal done.
I bring it up now because a lot of people come to us and they already own companies. They own some other company. I don’t care if it’s a dry cleaner or an online retailer like on Amazon or something like that. Those companies are great to do the first one or two or three deals, and if you have payroll or whatever, you can integrate that into that for a few deals. That works perfectly. That was me. We had other companies when we rolled this, I did, when I rolled this in. So your phone starts to ring, or the mail starts coming in. You answer the inbound traffic and you deal with it and you put it into Jill’s CRM.
I’m looking at this list, I’m reading this directly from our program, and nowhere in here is CRM. And you know why? Because I, H-A-I-G-H-T’ed it.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, because you just don’t like them.
Steven Butala:
Jill’s a CRM expert.
Jill DeWit:
So yeah.
Steven Butala:
I’m not. Answering the calls from the inbound traffic and then do your due diligence. Use Parcel Fact or Neighbor Scoop. Again, it’s a tool that we developed that we’ve been using ourselves and just made it public a couple of years ago. Check for the viability of the deal. You know, does it have access? Run through your due diligence lists. I would go through this in detail but this isn’t the time for that. Then make a decision. What do you mean make a decision?
Jill DeWit:
Do I buy it or do I not buy it?
Steven Butala:
This is huge issue for a lot of people.
Jill DeWit:
Do I buy it? Do I pass? I hear a lot more passing. I’d like to, can I share?
Steven Butala:
For sure.
Jill DeWit:
So I see a lot of people passing on a lot of good deals. And so I want to just get that out there. If you send out, let’s just say collectively in a month, if you’re sending out 10,000 units, this is a perfect scenario and I just had two consulting calls yesterday and we talked about this. If you could wrap your head around the, sit down once a month, scrub and get 10,000 units together. Might be different states, definitely different counties, different sizes, whatever, to have 10,000 sellers that you’re going to send offers to, and then divide it up into four weeks so it’s constant. It’s so much easier by the way, to start and be consistent, than to start and stop and start and stop and do that.
So in that way, too, the only lag time is that first two weeks, because now you’ve got it into a system. So once the mail hits for that first area, in a week here comes the mail from the next area. In a week here comes the mail for the next batch and the next batch. And put it on the calendar and be ready for it.
But my point with this here is how many deals should I be pulling out of that? All right, 10,000 went out, so let’s say, okay Jill, that’s 2,500 units a week. All right. I think with 2,500 units, kind of where we’re at, especially right now, I’m getting 20 to 40 callbacks on each week. That’s a good average. And then of those, I’m getting, say two thirds of them I get the purchase agreements back. So where am I at?
So 20 purchase agreements back, let’s just say. And then from those I want to pick, I don’t know, five that I’m really viable.
Steven Butala:
Five to 10.
Jill DeWit:
Five that I’m really interested in. So think about those numbers. So each week I’m doing that many and then when you dig into them there’s going to be a problem with one.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Or there’s, shucks, I didn’t realize that guy died and this is going to take two months, you know, whatever it is when you get through it. So you should be doing that, those numbers, and I want you to have that volume consistently. I don’t want you to come to me and say, “Jill, I’ve been with Land Academy for six months, I’ve done two deals.” That’s too few. I want you to do two your first month and four your next month, and eight your next month.
Steven Butala:
If you’ve done two deals in six months with Land Academy, there’s like four or five reasons I can tell you right now what happened. Why it’s so low. Number one, were you done?
Jill DeWit:
Well, I would say, I know what I think it is, usually you’re too picky. Or you didn’t send them enough mail.
Steven Butala:
I’m reading down a list that’s in the program.
Jill DeWit:
Sorry.
Steven Butala:
No, no. I’m reading down a list and the reason I stopped here. And there’s a reason that Jill has a lot to say about it. Because this is a huge issue.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
And it’s the root of this heat, this bottleneck let’s call it, is confidence.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
And there are, for some reason, extremely bright people who could have, and will have probably most of them, an amazing career in real estate investment in some form of it, maybe land, maybe apartments, maybe houses, we don’t know, gets stuck in this confidence, this little confidence slot. Where you’re staring at a property, it seems good, you go on our Thursday webinar, you do, would you do this deal? Jill and I say, “Yeah, you should do it.”
Jill DeWit:
We all love it.
Steven Butala:
Or we say, “This looks like a good deal, but you need to take it to the next step. You need to find out what the usability is.” Bap, bap, bap, these four or five things about the property, and it just doesn’t happen.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
Because there’s some type of fear that kicks in. Maybe you’re the last person that got picked in the kickball thing in third grade and you never got over it. I don’t know.
Jill DeWit:
Where did that? Did that happen to you?
Steven Butala:
Oh, I’m sure. I’m sure. And way worse stuff. But you just have to get over that confidence thing and some people will never get over it. That’s just all there is to it. I’ve said this story on the show before, I’ll say it again. This is before Jill. A long, long time ago we were with some family friends, one of them is a nurse and everybody’s having a few cocktails. We were talking about buying and selling real estate and she said, “How do you know, when you look at a property, if you should buy or not?”
And I said, “Well.” And I reeled off just like I’m reeling off a list of stuff right now. Well, if it’s this, this, this, and this, it’s got access, we have the money, all the other stuff, comps. She’s like, “Yeah. But how do you know?”
Jill DeWit:
I just told ya.
Steven Butala:
I said, “Well, I checked all those things, it passed. Then I call it planning and zoning and I can find it. And there’s this thing next door and this one in particular, I really want to buy it because …” And then she said, “Well, but how do you know?” And she could never, and she will never-
Jill DeWit:
Get past that.
Steven Butala:
Never get past it.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
But how do you know? She kept getting more intense about it. But Steve, how do you know you should buy it?
Jill DeWit:
That’s funny.
Steven Butala:
Because I know. And maybe it ends right there.
Jill DeWit:
With what?
Steven Butala:
Because I know.
Jill DeWit:
That’s what I think. That’s how I do it.
Steven Butala:
How do you know you love Jill? Because I know.
Jill DeWit:
Because I know. That’s so good. That’s what you should have fired back. That’s awesome. Okay where are we on the list? When we’re done I’m going to rapid fire a few things at you when we’re done.
Steven Butala:
We got past confidence and we decided to buy property. We sent it to escrow and they closed the deal. Isn’t that funny? You say that sentence like that, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Yep.
Steven Butala:
We decided to buy it so we sent it to escrow and we closed the deal. When in reality-
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
There’s threats and gunfire sometimes with title companies.
Jill DeWit:
With tears.
Steven Butala:
Now comes the time to sell the property. So during that due diligence process, you were looking at property up in Neighbor Scope. You were trying to call on planning and zoning and finding out all this information to see if you wanted to buy it. Well you should, in a perfect world, you should be taking screenshots and recording all that stuff because the same questions that you have when you buy it, are the exact same topics and questions that, when you go to sell it, the purchaser is going to want to know.
And if you got excited about it, and it passes all your tests, you need to convey that in the internet posting to the buyer, and they’re going to get excited about it and buy it too. It’s as simple as that. This requires computer skills and a knack for just like, wow, that’s really pretty. Or wow, that’s an awful posting. Some things you can’t learn, some things you can. That’s not my forte.
So you collect all this information and you post it. Now it comes to sales. Again, Jill’s expertise kicks in on these last two. What I’m describing is the anatomy of a deal, there’s three parts to it, acquisitions, engineering, and sales. And I stop at halfway through engineering and Jill takes over.
Now we’re just sales. So somebody says they want to buy it. What do you do? Let’s take one step back. To attract that buyer you got to get the message out. I used to run my business, long before Jill, on this concept. Well, it’s half the price of everything else, it’s got a pretty picture, that’s it. I’m going to wait for somebody to buy it and that didn’t work that well. And I took it to the next step and finally won. You got to reach the right people.
Whether it’s email, calling, texting, sending out neighbor letters.
Jill DeWit:
Social media.
Steven Butala:
The vast majority, 50% of the time, people within a one mile radius of the property that you just purchased are going to buy it from you if it’s priced right. Because they already own real estate there. That’s true with houses and apartments, and all kinds of stuff. It’s a universal real estate rule that gets really overlooked.
So just like when you bought it, you deal with the inbound phone calls and you talk to the people who were interested in buying it, and you stay organized in your CRM about things like that. And you go back to that same escrow company when you found a buyer and sell it for a lot more. That is a to do list. That is Buying a Property 101, go.
Jill DeWit:
Now that we’re through, feel good?
Steven Butala:
Yeah. No no, not really. Actually I feel like I had to rush through it.
Jill DeWit:
Well, it was a show. I have a few fun things now. I want to ask you too, as a follow up here, tell me like, yes, do it, or don’t do it. Things that people dream up that they need to do at this point in their business.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. The problems that they create for themselves?
Jill DeWit:
Should I? Okay, part of this whole thing, things and things to do, when I’m starting up my business. Do I get a fancy logo and spend a lot of money on it?
Steven Butala:
No. You spend no time on that.
Jill DeWit:
How about business cards?
Steven Butala:
Nope. This is 21st century. This is good Jill.
Jill DeWit:
How about, do I build a VA team, or get ready to build a VA team?
Steven Butala:
No.
Jill DeWit:
Do I think about that though?
Steven Butala:
No, we’ll talk about that in 202, 303, 404, 505.
Jill DeWit:
Well, do I go out and get a new truck? Because I’m going to be driving around.
Steven Butala:
Never. In fact you sell your truck.
Jill DeWit:
Why is that cute?
Steven Butala:
You don’t go to see the property?
Jill DeWit:
Do I work on my future employee bonus structure?
Steven Butala:
No. No. Is that where it ends?
Jill DeWit:
That’s about it.
Steven Butala:
No, now is the time.
Jill DeWit:
What do I do? Okay, well let me ask you this. Okay, I’m going to play devil’s advocate again, right? I just made $5,000 profit, I paid myself back on everything. I bought a property for 5,000, I sold it for 15, whatever. I put all the money back. What do I do with that 10 grand right now?
Steven Butala:
Are you kidding me? You save it. You save it for acquisitions.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you. I know the answer, I’m just making it obvious. I’m trying to make it obvious. I don’t go on vacation? Do I take my family?
Steven Butala:
No, no. Jill’s applying common sense here. I often skip over common sense because I just assume everybody has it. The last thing you want to do when you sit down to start a land business is put financial pressure on yourself.
Jill DeWit:
It’s true.
Steven Butala:
Put this massive time constraint on yourself because your rent’s going to be due and you only have 60 days of money left.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
That’s almost a sure way to fail.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Steven Butala:
Whatever job you have, keep it and do this. Like the person in the question. You should have a full time job for probably, we’ve said this many times on the show. I quit my job maybe two years too late. If I would have quit my job two years earlier, I probably would’ve made a lot more money a lot faster.
Seth Williams does a whole thing on this about, he had a government job. Like I think he was an SBA loan officer or something like that.
Jill DeWit:
Mortgage and stuff like that, yeah.
Steven Butala:
With a pension and the whole thing.
Jill DeWit:
Fannie May stuff or something?
Steven Butala:
He quit his job. He’s like, I should have done this five years ago. The first month he paid for like two years of what he was making at his job. Yeah, it was like Fannie May or something. So I hope that list was, I know we had to burn through it, but that’s a list of stuff to do. And including the question today, a really, really real world field for what it requires to get this thing off the ground and get that first deal done.
Jill DeWit:
Happy you could join us today. Five days a week you can find us right here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Butala:
Tomorrow, the episode on the Land Academy Show is Land Business 201, where you should be in two years. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you for carrying the show today.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. Do you like that or not like it?
Jill DeWit:
That’s always good just to sit here and just kind of relax. It’s cool. I’m fine with that.
Steven Butala:
Half of our viewing audience is like, “Why isn’t she talking?”
Jill DeWit:
You had a good list of things to cover. I was not needed there, it’s all good. And thank you for tuning in. We hope you find our content valuable and we appreciate your support. If you haven’t already please zip over to YouTube and check out our channel and hit the subscribe button
Steven Butala:
And your comments and suggestions help us to create the type of content you’re here for. Hitting the like button helps to support our channels algorithm engage your interest in future shows. We are Steve and Jill.
Jill DeWit:
We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala:
Information.
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at steven@BuWit.com.
The BuWit Family of Companies include:
I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.
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